Paige Allen, What is Necropolitics?, Perlego Study Guides, 2023
Necropolitics: origins and definitions
Necropolitics describes a form of political power that functions by bringing about the social and literal deaths of individuals and populations through direct action or deadly neglect. According to Michel Foucault, the essential engine of power is the right to life and death. Necropolitics is interested in how life is subjugated to the power of death in extreme and everyday ways.
The concept of necropolitics is rooted in Foucault’s theories of biopolitics. Foucault proposes that, before the eighteenth century, power functioned through the right to “take life or let live” (The History of Sexuality, Volume 1, 1976, [1990]), or sovereign power (see our study guide on Foucault’s theories of power).
Foucault News 